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ba318903 | 1 | @c Copyright (C) 1985-1987, 1993, 1995, 2001-2014 Free Software |
ab422c4d | 2 | @c Foundation, Inc. |
47a30023 GM |
3 | @c |
4 | @c Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies | |
5 | @c of this document, in any medium, provided that the copyright notice and | |
6 | @c permission notice are preserved, and that the distributor grants the | |
7 | @c recipient permission for further redistribution as permitted by this | |
8 | @c notice. | |
9 | @c | |
10 | @c Modified versions may not be made. | |
11 | ||
6bf7aab6 | 12 | @ifclear justgnu |
abb9615e | 13 | @node Manifesto |
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14 | @unnumbered The GNU Manifesto |
15 | @end ifclear | |
16 | @ifset justgnu | |
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17 | @node Top |
18 | @top The GNU Manifesto | |
19 | @end ifset | |
20 | ||
21 | @quotation | |
22 | The GNU Manifesto which appears below was written by Richard Stallman at | |
23 | the beginning of the GNU project, to ask for participation and support. | |
24 | For the first few years, it was updated in minor ways to account for | |
25 | developments, but now it seems best to leave it unchanged as most people | |
26 | have seen it. | |
27 | ||
28 | Since that time, we have learned about certain common misunderstandings | |
29 | that different wording could help avoid. Footnotes added in 1993 help | |
30 | clarify these points. | |
31 | ||
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32 | For up-to-date information about available GNU software, please see |
33 | our web site, @uref{http://www.gnu.org}. For software tasks and other | |
34 | ways to contribute, see @uref{http://www.gnu.org/help}. | |
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35 | @end quotation |
36 | ||
1df7defd | 37 | @unnumberedsec What's GNU@? Gnu's Not Unix! |
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38 | |
39 | GNU, which stands for Gnu's Not Unix, is the name for the complete | |
40 | Unix-compatible software system which I am writing so that I can give it | |
41 | away free to everyone who can use it.@footnote{The wording here was | |
42 | careless. The intention was that nobody would have to pay for | |
43 | @emph{permission} to use the GNU system. But the words don't make this | |
44 | clear, and people often interpret them as saying that copies of GNU | |
45 | should always be distributed at little or no charge. That was never the | |
46 | intent; later on, the manifesto mentions the possibility of companies | |
47 | providing the service of distribution for a profit. Subsequently I have | |
48 | learned to distinguish carefully between ``free'' in the sense of | |
49 | freedom and ``free'' in the sense of price. Free software is software | |
50 | that users have the freedom to distribute and change. Some users may | |
51 | obtain copies at no charge, while others pay to obtain copies---and if | |
52 | the funds help support improving the software, so much the better. The | |
53 | important thing is that everyone who has a copy has the freedom to | |
54 | cooperate with others in using it.} Several other volunteers are helping | |
55 | me. Contributions of time, money, programs and equipment are greatly | |
56 | needed. | |
57 | ||
58 | So far we have an Emacs text editor with Lisp for writing editor commands, | |
59 | a source level debugger, a yacc-compatible parser generator, a linker, and | |
60 | around 35 utilities. A shell (command interpreter) is nearly completed. A | |
61 | new portable optimizing C compiler has compiled itself and may be released | |
62 | this year. An initial kernel exists but many more features are needed to | |
63 | emulate Unix. When the kernel and compiler are finished, it will be | |
64 | possible to distribute a GNU system suitable for program development. We | |
65 | will use @TeX{} as our text formatter, but an nroff is being worked on. We | |
66 | will use the free, portable X window system as well. After this we will | |
67 | add a portable Common Lisp, an Empire game, a spreadsheet, and hundreds of | |
68 | other things, plus on-line documentation. We hope to supply, eventually, | |
69 | everything useful that normally comes with a Unix system, and more. | |
70 | ||
71 | GNU will be able to run Unix programs, but will not be identical to Unix. | |
72 | We will make all improvements that are convenient, based on our experience | |
73 | with other operating systems. In particular, we plan to have longer | |
74 | file names, file version numbers, a crashproof file system, file name | |
75 | completion perhaps, terminal-independent display support, and perhaps | |
76 | eventually a Lisp-based window system through which several Lisp programs | |
77 | and ordinary Unix programs can share a screen. Both C and Lisp will be | |
78 | available as system programming languages. We will try to support UUCP, | |
79 | MIT Chaosnet, and Internet protocols for communication. | |
80 | ||
81 | GNU is aimed initially at machines in the 68000/16000 class with virtual | |
82 | memory, because they are the easiest machines to make it run on. The extra | |
83 | effort to make it run on smaller machines will be left to someone who wants | |
84 | to use it on them. | |
85 | ||
86 | To avoid horrible confusion, please pronounce the `G' in the word `GNU' | |
87 | when it is the name of this project. | |
88 | ||
89 | @unnumberedsec Why I Must Write GNU | |
90 | ||
91 | I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I must | |
92 | share it with other people who like it. Software sellers want to divide | |
93 | the users and conquer them, making each user agree not to share with | |
94 | others. I refuse to break solidarity with other users in this way. I | |
95 | cannot in good conscience sign a nondisclosure agreement or a software | |
96 | license agreement. For years I worked within the Artificial Intelligence | |
97 | Lab to resist such tendencies and other inhospitalities, but eventually | |
98 | they had gone too far: I could not remain in an institution where such | |
99 | things are done for me against my will. | |
100 | ||
101 | So that I can continue to use computers without dishonor, I have decided to | |
102 | put together a sufficient body of free software so that I will be able to | |
103 | get along without any software that is not free. I have resigned from the | |
104 | AI lab to deny MIT any legal excuse to prevent me from giving GNU away. | |
105 | ||
106 | @unnumberedsec Why GNU Will Be Compatible with Unix | |
107 | ||
108 | Unix is not my ideal system, but it is not too bad. The essential features | |
109 | of Unix seem to be good ones, and I think I can fill in what Unix lacks | |
110 | without spoiling them. And a system compatible with Unix would be | |
111 | convenient for many other people to adopt. | |
112 | ||
113 | @unnumberedsec How GNU Will Be Available | |
114 | ||
115 | GNU is not in the public domain. Everyone will be permitted to modify and | |
116 | redistribute GNU, but no distributor will be allowed to restrict its | |
117 | further redistribution. That is to say, proprietary modifications will not | |
118 | be allowed. I want to make sure that all versions of GNU remain free. | |
119 | ||
120 | @unnumberedsec Why Many Other Programmers Want to Help | |
121 | ||
122 | I have found many other programmers who are excited about GNU and want to | |
123 | help. | |
124 | ||
125 | Many programmers are unhappy about the commercialization of system | |
126 | software. It may enable them to make more money, but it requires them to | |
127 | feel in conflict with other programmers in general rather than feel as | |
128 | comrades. The fundamental act of friendship among programmers is the | |
129 | sharing of programs; marketing arrangements now typically used essentially | |
130 | forbid programmers to treat others as friends. The purchaser of software | |
131 | must choose between friendship and obeying the law. Naturally, many decide | |
132 | that friendship is more important. But those who believe in law often do | |
133 | not feel at ease with either choice. They become cynical and think that | |
134 | programming is just a way of making money. | |
135 | ||
136 | By working on and using GNU rather than proprietary programs, we can be | |
137 | hospitable to everyone and obey the law. In addition, GNU serves as an | |
138 | example to inspire and a banner to rally others to join us in sharing. | |
139 | This can give us a feeling of harmony which is impossible if we use | |
140 | software that is not free. For about half the programmers I talk to, this | |
141 | is an important happiness that money cannot replace. | |
142 | ||
143 | @unnumberedsec How You Can Contribute | |
144 | ||
145 | I am asking computer manufacturers for donations of machines and money. | |
146 | I'm asking individuals for donations of programs and work. | |
147 | ||
148 | One consequence you can expect if you donate machines is that GNU will run | |
149 | on them at an early date. The machines should be complete, ready to use | |
150 | systems, approved for use in a residential area, and not in need of | |
151 | sophisticated cooling or power. | |
152 | ||
153 | I have found very many programmers eager to contribute part-time work for | |
1df7defd | 154 | GNU@. For most projects, such part-time distributed work would be very hard |
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155 | to coordinate; the independently-written parts would not work together. |
156 | But for the particular task of replacing Unix, this problem is absent. A | |
157 | complete Unix system contains hundreds of utility programs, each of which | |
158 | is documented separately. Most interface specifications are fixed by Unix | |
159 | compatibility. If each contributor can write a compatible replacement for | |
160 | a single Unix utility, and make it work properly in place of the original | |
161 | on a Unix system, then these utilities will work right when put together. | |
162 | Even allowing for Murphy to create a few unexpected problems, assembling | |
163 | these components will be a feasible task. (The kernel will require closer | |
164 | communication and will be worked on by a small, tight group.) | |
165 | ||
166 | If I get donations of money, I may be able to hire a few people full or | |
167 | part time. The salary won't be high by programmers' standards, but I'm | |
168 | looking for people for whom building community spirit is as important as | |
169 | making money. I view this as a way of enabling dedicated people to devote | |
170 | their full energies to working on GNU by sparing them the need to make a | |
171 | living in another way. | |
172 | ||
173 | @unnumberedsec Why All Computer Users Will Benefit | |
174 | ||
175 | Once GNU is written, everyone will be able to obtain good system | |
176 | software free, just like air.@footnote{This is another place I failed to | |
df9d7630 | 177 | distinguish carefully between the two different meanings of ``free.'' |
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178 | The statement as it stands is not false---you can get copies of GNU |
179 | software at no charge, from your friends or over the net. But it does | |
180 | suggest the wrong idea.} | |
181 | ||
182 | This means much more than just saving everyone the price of a Unix license. | |
183 | It means that much wasteful duplication of system programming effort will | |
184 | be avoided. This effort can go instead into advancing the state of the | |
185 | art. | |
186 | ||
187 | Complete system sources will be available to everyone. As a result, a user | |
188 | who needs changes in the system will always be free to make them himself, | |
189 | or hire any available programmer or company to make them for him. Users | |
190 | will no longer be at the mercy of one programmer or company which owns the | |
191 | sources and is in sole position to make changes. | |
192 | ||
193 | Schools will be able to provide a much more educational environment by | |
194 | encouraging all students to study and improve the system code. Harvard's | |
195 | computer lab used to have the policy that no program could be installed on | |
196 | the system if its sources were not on public display, and upheld it by | |
197 | actually refusing to install certain programs. I was very much inspired by | |
198 | this. | |
199 | ||
200 | Finally, the overhead of considering who owns the system software and what | |
201 | one is or is not entitled to do with it will be lifted. | |
202 | ||
203 | Arrangements to make people pay for using a program, including licensing of | |
204 | copies, always incur a tremendous cost to society through the cumbersome | |
205 | mechanisms necessary to figure out how much (that is, which programs) a | |
206 | person must pay for. And only a police state can force everyone to obey | |
207 | them. Consider a space station where air must be manufactured at great | |
208 | cost: charging each breather per liter of air may be fair, but wearing the | |
209 | metered gas mask all day and all night is intolerable even if everyone can | |
210 | afford to pay the air bill. And the TV cameras everywhere to see if you | |
211 | ever take the mask off are outrageous. It's better to support the air | |
212 | plant with a head tax and chuck the masks. | |
213 | ||
214 | Copying all or parts of a program is as natural to a programmer as | |
215 | breathing, and as productive. It ought to be as free. | |
216 | ||
217 | @unnumberedsec Some Easily Rebutted Objections to GNU's Goals | |
218 | ||
219 | @quotation | |
220 | ``Nobody will use it if it is free, because that means they can't rely | |
221 | on any support.'' | |
222 | ||
223 | ``You have to charge for the program to pay for providing the | |
224 | support.'' | |
225 | @end quotation | |
226 | ||
227 | If people would rather pay for GNU plus service than get GNU free without | |
228 | service, a company to provide just service to people who have obtained GNU | |
229 | free ought to be profitable.@footnote{Several such companies now exist.} | |
230 | ||
231 | We must distinguish between support in the form of real programming work | |
232 | and mere handholding. The former is something one cannot rely on from a | |
233 | software vendor. If your problem is not shared by enough people, the | |
234 | vendor will tell you to get lost. | |
235 | ||
236 | If your business needs to be able to rely on support, the only way is to | |
237 | have all the necessary sources and tools. Then you can hire any available | |
238 | person to fix your problem; you are not at the mercy of any individual. | |
239 | With Unix, the price of sources puts this out of consideration for most | |
240 | businesses. With GNU this will be easy. It is still possible for there to | |
241 | be no available competent person, but this problem cannot be blamed on | |
242 | distribution arrangements. GNU does not eliminate all the world's problems, | |
243 | only some of them. | |
244 | ||
245 | Meanwhile, the users who know nothing about computers need handholding: | |
246 | doing things for them which they could easily do themselves but don't know | |
247 | how. | |
248 | ||
249 | Such services could be provided by companies that sell just hand-holding | |
250 | and repair service. If it is true that users would rather spend money and | |
251 | get a product with service, they will also be willing to buy the service | |
252 | having got the product free. The service companies will compete in quality | |
253 | and price; users will not be tied to any particular one. Meanwhile, those | |
254 | of us who don't need the service should be able to use the program without | |
255 | paying for the service. | |
256 | ||
257 | @quotation | |
258 | ``You cannot reach many people without advertising, | |
259 | and you must charge for the program to support that.'' | |
260 | ||
261 | ``It's no use advertising a program people can get free.'' | |
262 | @end quotation | |
263 | ||
264 | There are various forms of free or very cheap publicity that can be used to | |
1df7defd | 265 | inform numbers of computer users about something like GNU@. But it may be |
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266 | true that one can reach more microcomputer users with advertising. If this |
267 | is really so, a business which advertises the service of copying and | |
268 | mailing GNU for a fee ought to be successful enough to pay for its | |
269 | advertising and more. This way, only the users who benefit from the | |
270 | advertising pay for it. | |
271 | ||
272 | On the other hand, if many people get GNU from their friends, and such | |
273 | companies don't succeed, this will show that advertising was not really | |
1df7defd | 274 | necessary to spread GNU@. Why is it that free market advocates don't |
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275 | want to let the free market decide this?@footnote{The Free Software |
276 | Foundation raises most of its funds from a distribution service, | |
277 | although it is a charity rather than a company. If @emph{no one} | |
278 | chooses to obtain copies by ordering from the FSF, it will be unable | |
279 | to do its work. But this does not mean that proprietary restrictions | |
280 | are justified to force every user to pay. If a small fraction of all | |
281 | the users order copies from the FSF, that is sufficient to keep the FSF | |
282 | afloat. So we ask users to choose to support us in this way. Have you | |
283 | done your part?} | |
284 | ||
285 | @quotation | |
286 | ``My company needs a proprietary operating system | |
287 | to get a competitive edge.'' | |
288 | @end quotation | |
289 | ||
290 | GNU will remove operating system software from the realm of competition. | |
291 | You will not be able to get an edge in this area, but neither will your | |
292 | competitors be able to get an edge over you. You and they will compete in | |
293 | other areas, while benefiting mutually in this one. If your business is | |
294 | selling an operating system, you will not like GNU, but that's tough on | |
295 | you. If your business is something else, GNU can save you from being | |
296 | pushed into the expensive business of selling operating systems. | |
297 | ||
298 | I would like to see GNU development supported by gifts from many | |
299 | manufacturers and users, reducing the cost to each.@footnote{A group of | |
300 | computer companies recently pooled funds to support maintenance of the | |
301 | GNU C Compiler.} | |
302 | ||
303 | @quotation | |
304 | ``Don't programmers deserve a reward for their creativity?'' | |
305 | @end quotation | |
306 | ||
307 | If anything deserves a reward, it is social contribution. Creativity can | |
308 | be a social contribution, but only in so far as society is free to use the | |
309 | results. If programmers deserve to be rewarded for creating innovative | |
310 | programs, by the same token they deserve to be punished if they restrict | |
311 | the use of these programs. | |
312 | ||
313 | @quotation | |
314 | ``Shouldn't a programmer be able to ask for a reward for his creativity?'' | |
315 | @end quotation | |
316 | ||
317 | There is nothing wrong with wanting pay for work, or seeking to maximize | |
318 | one's income, as long as one does not use means that are destructive. But | |
319 | the means customary in the field of software today are based on | |
320 | destruction. | |
321 | ||
322 | Extracting money from users of a program by restricting their use of it is | |
323 | destructive because the restrictions reduce the amount and the ways that | |
324 | the program can be used. This reduces the amount of wealth that humanity | |
325 | derives from the program. When there is a deliberate choice to restrict, | |
326 | the harmful consequences are deliberate destruction. | |
327 | ||
328 | The reason a good citizen does not use such destructive means to become | |
329 | wealthier is that, if everyone did so, we would all become poorer from the | |
330 | mutual destructiveness. This is Kantian ethics; or, the Golden Rule. | |
331 | Since I do not like the consequences that result if everyone hoards | |
332 | information, I am required to consider it wrong for one to do so. | |
333 | Specifically, the desire to be rewarded for one's creativity does not | |
334 | justify depriving the world in general of all or part of that creativity. | |
335 | ||
336 | @quotation | |
337 | ``Won't programmers starve?'' | |
338 | @end quotation | |
339 | ||
340 | I could answer that nobody is forced to be a programmer. Most of us cannot | |
341 | manage to get any money for standing on the street and making faces. But | |
342 | we are not, as a result, condemned to spend our lives standing on the | |
343 | street making faces, and starving. We do something else. | |
344 | ||
345 | But that is the wrong answer because it accepts the questioner's implicit | |
346 | assumption: that without ownership of software, programmers cannot possibly | |
347 | be paid a cent. Supposedly it is all or nothing. | |
348 | ||
349 | The real reason programmers will not starve is that it will still be | |
350 | possible for them to get paid for programming; just not paid as much as | |
351 | now. | |
352 | ||
353 | Restricting copying is not the only basis for business in software. It is | |
354 | the most common basis because it brings in the most money. If it were | |
355 | prohibited, or rejected by the customer, software business would move to | |
356 | other bases of organization which are now used less often. There are | |
357 | always numerous ways to organize any kind of business. | |
358 | ||
359 | Probably programming will not be as lucrative on the new basis as it is | |
360 | now. But that is not an argument against the change. It is not considered | |
361 | an injustice that sales clerks make the salaries that they now do. If | |
362 | programmers made the same, that would not be an injustice either. (In | |
363 | practice they would still make considerably more than that.) | |
364 | ||
365 | @quotation | |
366 | ``Don't people have a right to control how their creativity is used?'' | |
367 | @end quotation | |
368 | ||
369 | ``Control over the use of one's ideas'' really constitutes control over | |
370 | other people's lives; and it is usually used to make their lives more | |
371 | difficult. | |
372 | ||
7d1130ad | 373 | People who have studied the issue of intellectual property |
2f9a4a22 | 374 | rights@footnote{In the 80s I had not yet realized how confusing it was |
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375 | to speak of ``the issue'' of ``intellectual property.'' That term is |
376 | obviously biased; more subtle is the fact that it lumps together | |
377 | various disparate laws which raise very different issues. Nowadays I | |
378 | urge people to reject the term ``intellectual property'' entirely, | |
379 | lest it lead others to suppose that those laws form one coherent | |
2f9a4a22 | 380 | issue. The way to be clear is to discuss patents, copyrights, and |
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381 | trademarks separately. See |
382 | @uref{http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.xhtml} for more | |
383 | explanation of how this term spreads confusion and bias.} carefully | |
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384 | (such as lawyers) say that there is no intrinsic right to intellectual |
385 | property. The kinds of supposed intellectual property rights that the | |
386 | government recognizes were created by specific acts of legislation for | |
387 | specific purposes. | |
388 | ||
389 | For example, the patent system was established to encourage inventors to | |
390 | disclose the details of their inventions. Its purpose was to help society | |
391 | rather than to help inventors. At the time, the life span of 17 years for | |
392 | a patent was short compared with the rate of advance of the state of the | |
393 | art. Since patents are an issue only among manufacturers, for whom the | |
394 | cost and effort of a license agreement are small compared with setting up | |
395 | production, the patents often do not do much harm. They do not obstruct | |
396 | most individuals who use patented products. | |
397 | ||
398 | The idea of copyright did not exist in ancient times, when authors | |
399 | frequently copied other authors at length in works of non-fiction. This | |
400 | practice was useful, and is the only way many authors' works have survived | |
401 | even in part. The copyright system was created expressly for the purpose | |
402 | of encouraging authorship. In the domain for which it was | |
403 | invented---books, which could be copied economically only on a printing | |
404 | press---it did little harm, and did not obstruct most of the individuals | |
405 | who read the books. | |
406 | ||
407 | All intellectual property rights are just licenses granted by society | |
408 | because it was thought, rightly or wrongly, that society as a whole would | |
409 | benefit by granting them. But in any particular situation, we have to ask: | |
410 | are we really better off granting such license? What kind of act are we | |
411 | licensing a person to do? | |
412 | ||
413 | The case of programs today is very different from that of books a hundred | |
414 | years ago. The fact that the easiest way to copy a program is from one | |
415 | neighbor to another, the fact that a program has both source code and | |
416 | object code which are distinct, and the fact that a program is used rather | |
417 | than read and enjoyed, combine to create a situation in which a person who | |
418 | enforces a copyright is harming society as a whole both materially and | |
419 | spiritually; in which a person should not do so regardless of whether the | |
420 | law enables him to. | |
421 | ||
422 | @quotation | |
423 | ``Competition makes things get done better.'' | |
424 | @end quotation | |
425 | ||
426 | The paradigm of competition is a race: by rewarding the winner, we | |
427 | encourage everyone to run faster. When capitalism really works this way, | |
428 | it does a good job; but its defenders are wrong in assuming it always works | |
429 | this way. If the runners forget why the reward is offered and become | |
430 | intent on winning, no matter how, they may find other strategies---such as, | |
431 | attacking other runners. If the runners get into a fist fight, they will | |
432 | all finish late. | |
433 | ||
434 | Proprietary and secret software is the moral equivalent of runners in a | |
435 | fist fight. Sad to say, the only referee we've got does not seem to | |
436 | object to fights; he just regulates them (``For every ten yards you run, | |
437 | you can fire one shot''). He really ought to break them up, and penalize | |
438 | runners for even trying to fight. | |
439 | ||
440 | @quotation | |
441 | ``Won't everyone stop programming without a monetary incentive?'' | |
442 | @end quotation | |
443 | ||
444 | Actually, many people will program with absolutely no monetary incentive. | |
445 | Programming has an irresistible fascination for some people, usually the | |
446 | people who are best at it. There is no shortage of professional musicians | |
447 | who keep at it even though they have no hope of making a living that way. | |
448 | ||
449 | But really this question, though commonly asked, is not appropriate to the | |
450 | situation. Pay for programmers will not disappear, only become less. So | |
451 | the right question is, will anyone program with a reduced monetary | |
452 | incentive? My experience shows that they will. | |
453 | ||
454 | For more than ten years, many of the world's best programmers worked at the | |
455 | Artificial Intelligence Lab for far less money than they could have had | |
456 | anywhere else. They got many kinds of non-monetary rewards: fame and | |
457 | appreciation, for example. And creativity is also fun, a reward in itself. | |
458 | ||
459 | Then most of them left when offered a chance to do the same interesting | |
460 | work for a lot of money. | |
461 | ||
462 | What the facts show is that people will program for reasons other than | |
463 | riches; but if given a chance to make a lot of money as well, they will | |
464 | come to expect and demand it. Low-paying organizations do poorly in | |
465 | competition with high-paying ones, but they do not have to do badly if the | |
466 | high-paying ones are banned. | |
467 | ||
468 | @quotation | |
469 | ``We need the programmers desperately. If they demand that we | |
470 | stop helping our neighbors, we have to obey.'' | |
471 | @end quotation | |
472 | ||
473 | You're never so desperate that you have to obey this sort of demand. | |
474 | Remember: millions for defense, but not a cent for tribute! | |
475 | ||
476 | @quotation | |
477 | ``Programmers need to make a living somehow.'' | |
478 | @end quotation | |
479 | ||
480 | In the short run, this is true. However, there are plenty of ways that | |
481 | programmers could make a living without selling the right to use a program. | |
482 | This way is customary now because it brings programmers and businessmen the | |
483 | most money, not because it is the only way to make a living. It is easy to | |
484 | find other ways if you want to find them. Here are a number of examples. | |
485 | ||
486 | A manufacturer introducing a new computer will pay for the porting of | |
487 | operating systems onto the new hardware. | |
488 | ||
489 | The sale of teaching, hand-holding and maintenance services could also | |
490 | employ programmers. | |
491 | ||
7d1130ad | 492 | People with new ideas could distribute programs as |
df7593dd KB |
493 | freeware@footnote{Subsequently we have discovered the need to |
494 | distinguish between ``free software'' and ``freeware''. The term | |
495 | ``freeware'' means software you are free to redistribute, but usually | |
496 | you are not free to study and change the source code, so most of it is | |
497 | not free software. See | |
7d1130ad RS |
498 | @uref{http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html} for more |
499 | explanation.}, asking for donations from satisfied users, or selling | |
500 | hand-holding services. I have met people who are already working this | |
501 | way successfully. | |
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502 | |
503 | Users with related needs can form users' groups, and pay dues. A group | |
504 | would contract with programming companies to write programs that the | |
505 | group's members would like to use. | |
506 | ||
507 | All sorts of development can be funded with a Software Tax: | |
508 | ||
509 | @quotation | |
510 | Suppose everyone who buys a computer has to pay x percent of | |
511 | the price as a software tax. The government gives this to | |
512 | an agency like the NSF to spend on software development. | |
513 | ||
514 | But if the computer buyer makes a donation to software development | |
515 | himself, he can take a credit against the tax. He can donate to | |
516 | the project of his own choosing---often, chosen because he hopes to | |
517 | use the results when it is done. He can take a credit for any amount | |
518 | of donation up to the total tax he had to pay. | |
519 | ||
520 | The total tax rate could be decided by a vote of the payers of | |
521 | the tax, weighted according to the amount they will be taxed on. | |
522 | ||
523 | The consequences: | |
524 | ||
525 | @itemize @bullet | |
526 | @item | |
527 | The computer-using community supports software development. | |
528 | @item | |
529 | This community decides what level of support is needed. | |
530 | @item | |
531 | Users who care which projects their share is spent on | |
532 | can choose this for themselves. | |
533 | @end itemize | |
534 | @end quotation | |
535 | ||
536 | In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the post-scarcity | |
537 | world, where nobody will have to work very hard just to make a living. | |
538 | People will be free to devote themselves to activities that are fun, such | |
539 | as programming, after spending the necessary ten hours a week on required | |
540 | tasks such as legislation, family counseling, robot repair and asteroid | |
541 | prospecting. There will be no need to be able to make a living from | |
542 | programming. | |
543 | ||
544 | We have already greatly reduced the amount of work that the whole society | |
545 | must do for its actual productivity, but only a little of this has | |
546 | translated itself into leisure for workers because much nonproductive | |
547 | activity is required to accompany productive activity. The main causes of | |
548 | this are bureaucracy and isometric struggles against competition. Free | |
549 | software will greatly reduce these drains in the area of software | |
550 | production. We must do this, in order for technical gains in productivity | |
551 | to translate into less work for us. |